19 July 1995 Lincoln University Fees Rise For 1996

The on-going Government reduction in funding of tertiary tuition fees has forced Lincoln University to increase course costs for 1996 by an average of 18 percent.

"Government's decision, in line with Todd Task Force recommendations, to reduce funding to about 75 percent of tuition costs by 1999, has forced universities to pass on an increasingly greater proportion of costs to consumers," says Lincoln's Academic Registrar Roger Smyth.

"Sadly it's the universities who will receive the blame for raising fees when it actually links back to Government policy."

Through a flattening of Lincoln's previously tiered fee structure, increases for undergraduate degree programmes next year range from zero to 34 percent. Some fees will rise by 25 percent or more, for others the increase will be around 10 percent, and for still others there will be no increase.

There will be no increase for Lincoln's Bachelor of Science and most Masters degrees; Agricultural and Horticultural Science increases have been restricted to less than 10 percent while Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management and Resource Studies (undergraduate levels) will increase by about 23 percent.

Fees for two of the University's specialist commerce programmes, B.Com (Hotel & Institutional management) and the B.Com (Valuation & Property Management), will rise by 34 percent to $1848 per year.

In the past Lincoln has structured its fees over three bands according to the qualification sought. For this year the three bands were $1384, $2016 and $2392. Now a "flatter" fees structure has been adopted which will respond to the longstanding student concern about differentiation in fee levels.

The new scale ranges from $1672 for Bachelor of Social Science, Bachelor of Maori Studies and some Bachelor of Commerce degrees to $2856 for Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.

"In calculating fee levels for 1996, the University Council has responded to student concerns about the differentiation of fees," says Mr Smyth.

"It is acknowledged, however, that initially the increase will be felt unevenly across the student body. Most of those currently on the higher scales have had lower increases while many of those on the lower fees scales will feel a greater impact."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.